If you’ve been abused as a child, Queensland is the unluckiest state to be in

If you’ve been abused as a child or assaulted as an adult, Queensland is one of the unluckiest places to find yourself trying to get justice. We don’t have a dedicated and trained specialist section of the police service like other states. We make survivors repeat and repeat and repeat their attacks instead of using recordings like other states. We have the most archaic legislation around consent with the “mistake of fact” defence allowing defendants to use their own drunkenness to secure acquittals.

The ABS recently reported the number of official sexual assault victims increased by 8% across Australia from 2016, reaching an eight-year high in 2017. In Queensland 4,751 victims of sex crimes were reported in the 2016-2017 year, yet only 835 offenders were proven guilty in that year (either by pleading or after trial). That suggests there’s a less than a one in five chance of a guilty verdict for people who make official complaints.